Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A fellow blogger’s (Vincent Wright’s) comments about my last
blog, “Communication Branding: A Speech”, sparked the idea for this one. That
blog reminded him of a Walt Whitman poem, and he sent this excerpt from “Voices”
in Leaves of Grass:

“O what is it in me
that makes me tremble so at voices?Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall
follow, as the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere
around the globe.”

Whitman’s words got me thinking that I really needed to
comment on delivery since the content of a speech is only half of a branding
story. Each spring we’re reminded that a major draw for any university
commencement address is the speaker. The strength of the speaker’s delivery
skills will make or break the impact of the message. Let me elaborate on that
point with a few examples.

Audio books, once dismissed as an aid for the blind and
disabled, are now leading a very hot and lucrative literary market. Financial success for these books is extremely dependent on the voice and skills of the
reader.

Whenever possible the reader should be the author, but not
if the voice is wrong. I don’t know if Paula Dean has any audio cookbooks, but
the mere thought of hearing her read the ingredients in a recipe makes me
cringe. The sound of her voice isn’t so bad as hearing nails on a chalk board,
but it’s not far from it. I know from whence I speak, as my earbuds have
transmitted the sound of many authors during my daily workout or run.

I find it hard to listen to President Barack Obama. My
discomfort may have something to do with the fact that he regularly slips in
and out of speech patterns/dialects depending on his audience. He generally
uses a “Kansas” sound, sometimes referred to as a South Midland accent. When speaking
to a primarily Black audience, he adopts either a Chicago style or African
American Vernacular English (AAVE).

Like other politicians, Obama selects a dialect to suit the
particular audience he’s addressing; and since we’re not in the audience, we
have to adapt our ears to TV or audio clips. Subtle as they may be, his
shifting speech patterns and distracting dependence on a teleprompter
contribute all too often to a weak delivery. In my opinion he’s at his best
when he’s being a humorist, for the words are few and his comedic timing is
near perfect.

President George W. Bush has a distinct Texas twang that got
more pronounced the deeper in the South he was speaking. Haley Barbour was an
outstanding 63rd governor of Mississippi, but I suspect his heavy Southern
accent has precluded him from moving beyond the national stage he achieved as
the former chairman of the NRC.

One of the best examples of harmonious delivery and message
can be found in Kevin Costner’s eulogy for his friend, Whitney Houston. His
recollection of their friendship and Whitney’s strengths and insecurities was a
standout in the string of tributes in a far too-long memorial service. Kostner
found the right voice to speak to the
congregation and did so with remembrances beautifully crafted and a flawless,
extremely moving delivery.